Well I took some time today to update the blog a bit and give it a Holiday twist :) I also had to add my own very favorite classic holiday music - I love holiday tunes from the "olden days" as I call them and just cant seem to get enough of them!I am busy getting ready for the fair later this week and it runs from Thursday to Sunday so if you live in the area and stop by come say hi we will be in booth 104 main building.
Speaking of Christmas, can someone tell me what happened to my Fall? My trees in the yard are completely barren and void of all the colorful leaves. In fact they had barely just started to change and boom we were hit with a cold snap that froze them all off and now the trees are bare. Luckily I had enough brains to pull the tomatoes off of the plant and now I will attempt to ripen them in the house - I need all the luck I can get as I am not a gardener.
My grand plan in the scheme of things is to have the still unnamed Holiday collection up and ready to go next week - yes next week along with the remaining Mish Mash items. I have a few ideas in my head and I am sure by the end of tonight I will be inspired. Hope to be able to post some sneak peeks this weekend!
Oh and I am feeling like I would love to do a giveaway and I really have no reason but just for fun! So since I now have Holiday music on here, leave me a comment with your favorite Holiday memory and I will choose a lucky winner later this week.
52 comments:
Hi Amy,
Wow..can't believe winter has hit there already!! We too seem to have skipped fall and went right into winter......
My favorite Christmas memory is when I received my Cabbage Patch Doll. I awoke Christmas Eve to find Santa had come....it had to be like 2 a.m......I so needed to know if I got my beloved CPK doll,so I had the bright idea to begin (quietly) opening up my gifts...and lo and behold...I found her!! Sharona Trixie....adorable braids...prettiest blue eyes...and she was all mine :) I then proceeded to run to the kitchen, find some scotch tape, and try to re-wrap the gifts I had opened hoping nobody would notice....LOL :) So fun remembering that....
~Amy E.
Oh, you're killing me with the holiday music. Halloween hasn't even come and gone!!! :D
Mh... my holidays were all pretty awesome as a kid. What I remember most is sitting by the tree, shaking & poking the presents and guessing what was inside. Come Christmas I would be totally bummed out, because nothing was a surprise anymore. Yep, I always figured them out. The thing is, I never told my mom I was playing this guessing game. Otherwise she probably would have started boxing things :-).
My Greatest Holiday Memory is when my daughter had her second Christmas. She was too young to remember the first one. All the lights in the house was out except the tree was lit and flashing, as if dancing to the tunes of Carols. I worked so hard the night before trying to get her to stay asleep and put together all the many pieces of her many new gifts. It was very hard work between the two :) But when she ran up the hall that morning, the Christmas lights glowing in her eyes, and saw all the gifts, she didn't know what to go to first--her new toybox filled with toys, her baby stroller with a new baby, one of her two new musical chairs, and so many more. She was so amazed and confused at the same time, and the look on her face was priceless! I hope to have many more Christmases like this one, as it was the best gift I could have ever received!
My favorite Holiday memory is when I found out I was pregnant with my daughter two days before Christmas after trying for 5 months. I will never forget the look on my husbands face! Then we told my mother-in-law on Christmas Eve and she started crying tears of joy. I think she had given up on the idea of being a grandma. Those are wonderful Christmas memories I cherish and something money could never buy. My daughter was an awesome Christmas gift even though I had to wait 8 more months to meet her!
Gosh, we had incredible holidays growing up filled with lots if family & great memories!
One thing that is super special that I remember from each year is our tradition of "The Man on the Moon" would leave us a gift under the tree each year for us to open on Christmas Eve. It was always a new set of pajamas for is to wear that night. In fact, the "Man on the Moon" still brings us & our kids presents at my mom's house! ;)
That's tough, so many great Christmas memories....I remember as a child that I couldn't wait for Christmas morning (and one year even sneaked a peek early using a hairdryer to easily remove the tape and take a peek) but I remember my family coming over with garbage bags full of presents and my brother and I would literlly pretend to swim in them on the floor and make "snow" angels in them :) He would frustrate me so much because he had to have his cereal first before we could open presents....who does that??? men!
My fondest memory is my oldest daughters first Christmas morning. It was of my daddy holding my little girl. He passed away from cancer shortly after.
You could see his joy getting to hold this tiny newborn of mine. She was 5 weeks old at the time. His hand was almost as big as her whole back, they were sitting by the fireplace with the warmth of Christmas all around them. He had tears in his eyes at the joy of holding her.
I am just so thankful that he got to be a part of her life, if even for a short period of time.
Thanks for letting us share.
The memory that remains the most clear and still makes me smile is of a Christmas when I was around 5 years old. Our house had steep steps coming up from the living room, which is where the Christmas tree was. As I walked down these steps Christmas morning, and as the floor of the living room came into view, I could see the bit of twinkle from the lights, the colored wrap of the gifts and also something that I couldn't quite understand. Each step brought more of this mystery into sight until I was at the bottom and sitting right in front of me was a handmade wooden sleigh rocking chair. It stood about five feet tall and had an intricate (Gorgeous!) design painted...hearts and birds and so many swirls. The chair was like magic; like something from a fairy tale. It was unexpected. And it was mine. Sitting in that chair made me feel like a princess. Thirty years later the chair was greeted again with the same look of wonderment, only this time it was coming from the eyes of daughter. It was amazing to see on her face the exact feelings that I remembered having that magic Christmas three decades before.
My favorite Holiday memory is when my daughter Dominique had her 1st Christmas. We got her this baby and a stroller to push around (yes she was walking) and she was so excited we couldn't get her to open anything else. If I had a pic I would send it to you! It is soooo cute!! We even got her a Tickle Me Elmo and she didn't even care....LOL
I have so many memories of Christmas with my family. I come from a large family, 6 siblings in fact. I am a twin, we are the babies of family. My parents found out they were pregnant at 40...surprise! Anyway, my sister and I were unwrapping presents on Christmas morning and my parents always gave us one present together. We tried to guess what it could be - it was heavy. We open it up to find the yellow pages. My sister holds it up, trying to figure out why we have a telephone book. And taped to the back are car keys!! Yes, we had to share our first car. It was the best Christmas ever. My older brothers and sisters all gave something towards the car. It is amazing to come from such a large loving family. Christmas is my favorite time of year! Thank you for letting us share our memories. It is neat to hear about others memories as well.
Oh, I am SO excited to see some LMN holiday! We are loving our Mish Mash. I have so many lovely memories of childhood Christmases, but I have to say that last year tops them all. Our first Christmas with our family complete, both girls crawling around under the tree, just blown away by the lights, the pretty paper, the new toys. It was such a beautiful glimpse of all the holidays stretching out in front of us for years to come. Sigh, so excited that another Christmas is on the way soon!
Wow - that first picture is INSANE - I think I would die - literally - like just fall over. LOL
My favorite holiday memory......hmmmmmm....that is a hard one. We didn't have many good Christmases after we moved away from family - its something I am really trying to do for Evie while she is still little.
I think one of my fondest memories of Christmas was the first Christmas with Dan (my now husband). He is so not a cook - but he has ONE dish - and that is a dish he makes at Christmas. He pulls out all of the stops. I remember him pulling out this beat up, old rickety recipe card and getting to work.
There were orange peels, syrup, all kinds of crazy things sticking all over the cramped little apartment kitchen - and he proudly pulls out his 'Orange Chicken'. And it was and still is the best thing he has ever made. He is a lover of Christmas and he made me love it once more.
I guess what did it was the fact that he did something he NEVER does - to make ME happy. Now that is love.
My favorite holiday memory is last year when we took the kids on a Christmas train ride. It was so beautiful to see the lights from the train in the dark and we even got a great picture for our Christmas cards. With three kids a Christmas card picture that has them all staying still is hard to get! I'm gona try to get that picture again this year. But I doubt I will be able to do it two years in a row. Wish me luck!
This isn't my FAVORITE, per say, but a signifucant memory was when my 3 year old came down with pneumonia while traveling out of town at Christmas. We spent 6 days in the hospital, the family split up the entire time. I'd never appreciated the simple blessing of being together as a family like i learned to do that week.
Fall is my favorite season but I am a lover of winter. That first pic is gorgeous, I find ice fascinating.
Holiday memory, hmmm, well I grew up Jewish but we also celebrated xmas because of my stepmom. I love that their way of trying to not confuse us was to call the tree a Hanukkah bush and we got gifts from both Santa and Hanukkah Harry (looks like santa but with brown hair, ehe)
Also, now I have Charlie Brown's Christmas song in my head 'Christmas time is here, la la la la la......'
Favorite holiday memory is going to grandma and grandpas. For fun grandma would hide a pecan in the dessert and if you found this you got to pick an ornament off the tree. Gosh that was a long time ago!
Tis the season...YEH! I love this time of year. It's my favorite! I have some wonderful holiday memories, of course of my kids. But, the one that tops the cake for me happened about six years ago. Someone in my family came up with the idea that my whole family, brother, sister and their families, my Mom and stepdad, and my Dad and stepmom, go to Gatlinburg TN for a long holiday weekend. (My parents divorced when I was 6 years old, about 30 years ago). WE were all nervous on how well our parents would do together being locked up in a cabin for several days together. But, amazingly, everyone got along, we ended up having a blast. We've been repeating this adventure every year since. It's become a holiday tradition. Our kids absolutely love it. We play games, do ornament gift exchanges (which is hilarious by the way). We even put up a Christmas tree in the cabin so we all get the full feeling of Christmas. This means so much to me and my entire family, because....it was the first year in over 30 years that our family became one again. We were no longer 2 separate families. We celebrate birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter...everything together now. I am truly blessed to have parents, who have learned to set their differnces aside for the happiness of the kids, and grandchildren.
Favorite Christmas memory- geez- there are so many!
When I was 18 and living in the dorm, I wanted a computer for my dorm room. My parents had been talking about getting a new computer and I mistakenly thought they were talking about getting me a new computer. They were talking about getting a FAMILY computer (they lived right across the street from the university- so I would be welcome to come over and use it)
So on Christmas day my brother and I walked down to see the new computer on the dining room table- big deal- I was still hurt that I was "robbed" of my computer. My parents couldn't understand why I wasn't more excited. After all the gifts were opened, my parents kept looking at me and finally I asked why- needless to say, there were TWO computers on the dining room table. DUH!
Just have to say that I love that you posted Christmas music and speak of Christmas instead of just the Holiday season. While I respect everyone's beliefs, I love Christmas and think that we should be able to celebrate Christmas as much as any other holiday.
That being said, my favorite Christmas memory is the Christmas I received a letter from Santa. It was in the 80's when I was a little kid and so desparately wanted a Cabbage Patch Kid. Santa explained that while he couldn't bring a CPK for me that night, he promised I would have one soon. I wasn't disappointed in not receiving a CPK that year, because the letter seemed so special to me. And just a few months later, the Easter Bunny brought me my first CPK! I was so excited. I still have the letter from Santa to this day. :)
I have so many wonderful holiday memories!! The one that stands out most was when I was 12 years old and we had moved into our first house. My dad was in the military so we had always lived in housing and on Christmas eve of 1989 we moved into our very own house. My mom suprised me with a pink room...I was in heaven LOL. In housing you were not allowed to paint or make any changes to the homes so this was a real treat. The next morning the tree was surronded by presents but I had already recieved the best present ever, a real house that was just ours!! Tori
Thanks for offering a giveaway :).
My favorite holiday memory was the Christmas of 2006. My daughter was only a couple of months old but it was her first real holiday besides Thanksgiving and it was so special. There was just so much love and cuddles. Of course, there still is. BUT now at 3 she'll be ripping her packages open :).
My Favorite Holidays started when my kids were born. (1 in 2005 and 1 in 2007.) Christmas is just more memorable and enjoyable when you get to see your kids open up presents. Seeing the smiling faces and hearing the laughter is the best feeling in the world. See, my birthday is on Christmas and every year it never failed someone would forget about it being my birthday...so since I have had my kids, it doesn't matter and it's not just about 'me' anymore. Plus, I am getting older...I don't want anyone to remember my birthday!
Happy Holidays!
Melissa
Can't wait to see what you have in store for us with your Holiday collection!!!
My favorite Christmas memories are definitely of being at my grandma's house. She would bake Christmas cookies and other baked goods for 3-4 days to take to all of her neighbors and most of the small town she lived it. It was so wonderful!! I would help her deliver them and the recipients were always looking forward to their yearly treat from my grandma. I still miss her so much!!!
My favorite holiday memories start with my childhood memories of Christmas morning. I remember so vividly waking up in the wee hours of the morning to scurry out to the Christmas tree to see what Santa had left - our Santa didn't wrap our gifts and we were allowed to play (supposedly) quietly with whatever he left out for us and whatever he left in our stocking. So we'd play until we couldn't stand the anticipation of the wrapped gifts under the tree and we'd bound into our parent's room, bouncing, giggling girls (I'm the oldest of four girls) and attempt (read beg, plead, whine) to rouse our bleary eyed parents to let us open our other gifts. I never understood as a child why Mom and especially Dad looked so so tired on Christmas morning ... that is until *I* became the parent. Countless hours, broken nails, and muttered swear words later ... doll houses built, tricycles assembled, bikes standing at the ready ... then I understood and I became the bounced on, bleary eyed, sleepy Mommy fending off children ready to open the rest of the gifts. It is such a sweet reminder of my days as a child and my time now as a mom.
My favorite holiday memory is Christmas of 2002. Earlier that year on Mother's Day I had told my parents that for Christmas they would get a grandchild. Tyler was born on 12/21 and we were home in time for Christmas. I have pictures from Christmas Eve of everyone taking a turn holding him.
This is a stupid holiday memory. We were going to get our Christmas tree. I must have been about 8. I was sitting in the front seat of the Barracuda (really it was) and pushed in the cigarette lighter. When it popped out, it was red hot for 2 seconds, then ash grey. I thought, mn, it must be cool already, so like an idiot, I touched it to check it out. I left our tree buying experience with nice concentric circles on the tip of my finger and aheck of a lot of pain. Thanks for the opportunity to reminisce!
My favorite holiday memory is more of a mish mash of childhood christmas mornings. Our piney smelling living room, the trouble my parents went through to surprise me on christmas morning, oldies christmas carols on the record player, dragging my parents out of bed at 6am...hehe. My mom and I would bake sugar cookies christmas even, and she was just an awful cook, and they would always be half burned, but they were so wonderful anyway. She passed away when I was ten, so that's something I really miss!
My favorite Christmas moment is sleeping with my siblings, all in one room--on the floor. My big brother wouldn't ever let us go out and 'peek' but come morning, it was all fair game. We went out to the tree-checked things out and went back to bed and waited until later. Then we would again go out and dig into all the goodies left.
My favorite holiday memory is a naughty one. I'm the oldest of 4 kids and we discovered "Santa's stash" in our basement a few weeks before Christmas. My Dad had all the gifts locked behind a door in his workshop. So...we decided to take the door off the hinges!
I'm really not sure how we figured out how to do it, or how we got it done and all back together without being discovered(or putting an eye out!). The even funnier part is that the following years we just decided to make my skinny younger sister scale the partition wall and report back to us on what she saw. So desperate!
Now that we are all grown we laugh about it every year when we all get back together for the Holidays and we all have better hiding places for our kids' gifts as a result.
Wow, you all must have gotten hitten harder up north. You are such a great gal! Can't wait to see holiday..and hear more stories!
I just want to say thanks for this fun contest! :) My favorite Christmas memory is when I was 44 years old and I woke up to check my stocking and stuck my arm into the BIG stocking and could not reach my goody, because my arms were too short. I got a keychain, I really loved it. :)
I LOVE Christmas! :-)
My favorite holiday memory happened a few years ago. We had 4 passes that we were going to give away at Legoland. I told my oldest son that he could choose who we would give them to. So we sat at the front gate and watched people. I kept waiting for JK to say, "That's them!!!" but we kept waiting and waiting. About 15 minutes go by and JK nudges me and points to a hispanic family and says, "That's them, Mom." So we approached the family and told them what we wanted to do for them. The 2 brothers and the mom started crying. The dad proceeded to tell me that their daughter had dies that month in a tragic accident and that they came to California for the holidays to get away from memories and to visit various theme parks in California. I was amazed that my son had the intuition to pick a family that so needed it. We saw them throughout the day at the park and gave special little waves to each other. It was very meaningful to my family...we still talk about it to this day. Sometimes the greatest gifts you receive are the ones you give away.
ummm. yeah I was 4 years old...not 44... lol ;)
Hey - just an idea...but you should post the sneak peeks and a few words about your inspiration for the Holiday Line ask for collection name suggestions.
Better yet, have us ask our daughters for suggestions. Kids have the best imaginations!
Alright, hmmmm....How about the time I found out the secret of Santa Claus? I was around 7 years old and my brothers were all teenagers. One of my brothers is allergic to "antiperspirant", and can only wear "deodorant". Well, Santa put antiperspirant in my brother's stocking!! When he brought this fact up to my mom she said she'd return it (now days, who in the heck would return something like that??). I questioned the fact that you could return something Santa brought ....ah, then the truth all came out. I'm actually amazed that my boys at 9 and 10 are still semi-believers. At least they act like they believe anyway!
My favorite holiday memory is looking at Christmas lights every year. There is something so magical about what Christmas lights can do to you. The joy I had as a child just ooooing and awwwing over them. I now take my kids to see Christmas lights and their eyes light up like mine did 30 years ago.
Yay!--a giveaway and some fab music to boot. =) I really enjoy our yearly tree cutting excursion. My husband and I have been married for 12 years this November and it has been our tradition to cut down our own tree every year. Now that we have two girls it has become an even more fun experience. We always go the Friday after Thanksgiving with my in-laws to the same little private tree farm--no crowds at all. It is such a fun time.
Getting my first Cabbage Patch Kids is one of my fave memories as a child. It was a boy (Avery) but I could've cared less! I was just so happy to get one. :) Can't wait to see the new holiday collection!
I have to say the my favorite Holiday memory is finding out that we were going to be parents to a daughter born on Christmas day in China. You can't get a better gift than that.
Thanks for the chance at an early Christmas and a prize! Oh how I love contests! And I can't wait for the Holiday line- hooray!
My best ever Christmas memory was the Christmas I was 7 months pregnant with our (now 5 year old) daughter. We were out of town at the in laws and my husband managed to smuggle in a ginormous stuffed white polar bear. Christmas morning I found him (the bear) under the tree with our daughter's name on a tag tied around his neck and a little ox in his paw. The box was for me and contained the most stunning pearls I have ever seen. I was caught totally off guard and dumbfounded and cried for ten minutes (probably a bit hormonal, too). We toted that big bear home on the plane and still have him. His name is Bartholomew (for reasons I cannot explain) and he is still bigger than my daughter! The pearls, of course, will be my daughter's one of these days as well. Perhaps when she is pregnant with her first child... :)
Amy, thank you so much for doing this contest. It is very sweet of you!
My favorite Christmas memory was when we would listen to Johnny Mathis Christmas music, sit by the warm fire, and my dad would read us How The Grinch Stole Christmas. My dad is a very silly guy, so you can only imagine how animated the characters were when he read. No matter how many times he read it, my brother and I would laugh and laugh. In retrospect, now as a parent, I realize that he was trying to teach us the true meaning of Christmas. My son was only six weeks old on his first Christmas. My dad bought him his very own copy of "the Grinch" and wrote a really moving inscription to him. Now, every year my dad reads my kids The Grinch and they love it as much as we did!!
My favorite Christmas memory is my last Christmas at my parents' farm before my dad passed away. It snowed and snowed and snowed the night before, and we had an hour drive to their house. It just happened that we had recently gotten a Jeep that month, so it was scary, but we made it to their house. Sure, the gifts were great, but what I remember from that Christmas was just the fact that we were all together. That spring we unexpectedly lost my dad--I'll never forget the memory of our last Christmas as a family!
My all time favorite Holiday memory is of My great Grandma Sue who died in 2003. She used to buy us one gift each and bring it over about 12 days before Christmas.
The special thing was she would tape 12candy bars on the package. So every day we would get to choose one until christmas. My brothers,sister and I just loved this we would spend so much time deciding which candy we would have that day..I swear there was just something about it that made us look so forward to it every year even though it is such a simple thing to do. My grandma did lots of special things and I hope to one day do the same with my grand kids. I know this probably seems like so whats the big deal..but this really is my favorite christmas time memory. My grandma was a very special lady that everyone loved..but she wouldnt take any crap either...lol
Thanks for letting me share!
My favorite Holiday Memory is remembering how I FELT as a child...The Innocence to Pain and Heartache...Not worrying about tomorrow...Living in the moment...The Joy and Love I felt being with my family and starring out the window for hours watching the snow!
Favorite Holiday Memory... that is so tough because Christmas is absolutely by far my most favorite time of the year! I love everything about it - the wonder and hope that it represents and the serentity of the season. Yes, it always gets so crazy at that time of year but I love the peacefulness of sitting in the living room after everyone has gone to bed, with the white lights of tree sparkling in the darkness, and just reflecting on how wonderful my family is and how fortunate I am.
One of my favorite Christmas memories, was back in 1975 when my sister and I were 6 and 5 respectively. We lived in an apartment building and our cousin, Tony (like me, 5 years old), lived in the unit next door.
Tony was adament that there was no Santa Clause, my sister and I were on the fence about it. Our parents never really encouraged the belief, but I think we both secretly believed just a little. We rationalized that he would skip our house because living in an apartment building, we didn't have a fire place.
Anyway, that Christmas Eve, we were determined to fool Tony into believing. So we stayed up late and at whatever time we thought was appropriate, we opened our bedroom window, and I started jingling a chain of bells as my sister, using her best ventriliquist abilitites, bellowed a hearty, "ho-ho-ho" into the night. Oh my, we were absolutely giddy with excitement through it all. Finally we decided enough was enough and went to bed.
The next morning, Tony came rushing over and he was bursting at the seams to tell us he heard Santa Clause coming the night before and how we were right, Santa doesn't come to kids in apartment buildings because he can't get in, but that he is really real!
My mom scolded us for playing a trick on Tony, but she felt telling him would be worse than having him believe. So we never said a word.
Amy, wow! That 1st photo is just amazing!
Hmm, I have kind of a strange Holiday memory I guess. We used to live in Thailand and I remember as Christmas approached I got really sad that we were so far away from family and friends and in a country that was so hot and just the exact opposite from all my Christmas time memories growing up in England! Ken,(now DH) wanted to cheer me up and so he had all the local children we taught make Christmas pictures and he hung them in our room and as we couldn't find any Christmas trees he made me a Christmas spotlight, yes as in the spotlight lamps for your desk! He made garland and strung it around the lamp and then put little presents etc all around it! We put on the light in the evening like we would have our lights on the tree back home!lol! I loved him so much for making all that effort - he also put a winter snowfall theme on my laptop too...dorky yes but it made me feel so special:)
We went from summer to winter here too....no fall :(
It's hard to pick one favorite Christmas memory because there are so many. One that stands out is when I was pregnant with my daughter. I had wanted kids for soooooo long and I finally got pregnant when I was 35!
:)Ramona
My favorite Christmas Memory was in 2003 when my oldest son was 2 1/2 years old. He had fallen in love with Thomas the Tank, and after visiting nearly every Toys R Us in the Chicagoland area, my husband & brother found a Thomas table. They came home and set the table up with the accessories, and when he came down the stairs, he squealed with excitement. It still brings a smile to my face and tears to my eyes to think of his joy.
This is just one of many memories because I love Christmas and spending it with my 4 children is a blessing every year! :)
Can't wait to see your holiday line. I think my best holiday memory was when I we got to have Thanksgiving dinner will all my family. There were lots of people from far away and it was nice to catch up and spend some time with them.
I love the new purples and reds!! I have a purple obsessed daughter named Violet ;)
My favorite holiday memory was when I was around 6 or 7. It rarely snows here, and never on christmas. But one christmas eve, my family (parents, older brother) were at the light show (called Peacock Lane here) drinking hot chocolate and enjoying the lights, when it started to gently drop snowflakes. For a little girl who had never enjoyed a white christmas, it was truly magical. I remember waking up on christmas, and me and my brother and cousins taking the sleds out. It was so fun!
Not quite my favorite Christmas memory, but definitely the strongest memory I have...last Christmas...after months of battling brain cancer, my sister died on Christmas morning. I was exhausted and devestated but so thankful for my 4 year old daughter. It was a blessed distraction to watch her revel in the thrill of Christmas, pure love, pure joy, pure happiness. Last Christmas morning was the dichotomy of everything you want to forget about Christmas and everything you want to remember about Christmas.
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